Transportation Workers Set Global Agenda in Toronto

TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2012 /CNW/ -The International Transport Workers'
Federation (ITF) will be meeting in downtown Toronto beginning today to
set the global agenda for transportation worker unions right around the
world, in the rail and road transportation sectors.

The road and rail transportation conference will take on issues like
privatization, deregulation, logistics and supply chains on a global
scale, and how they all impact workers' lives and workers' rights.
Conference delegates will be debating how to support trade union
efforts in Iran, Turkey and Swaziland, as well as here in Canada.

The event is being co-sponsored by the CAW and the ITF. It will attract
more than 200 delegates from 76 unions in 44 countries, as far away as
Nepal and Palestine.

"This event brings together road and railway trade unions from around
the world with the message: Transport unions fighting back - to build
stronger unions and to protect workers' rights," said Mac Urata, ITF
inland transport sections secretary.

"Together we will examine what's happening in a sector under constant
pressure to deregulate and privatise - with the negative results
witnessed by road and rail users almost everywhere. From those shared
experiences we will build new and innovative strategies - practical and
political, on public transport and freight transport, right through the
supply chain - for change, and, where necessary, for resistance."

"Increasingly workers are being confronted by hostile global
corporations that pit workers in one country against those in another,"
said CAW Secretary-Treasurer and ITF executive board member Peter
Kennedy. "It is only through working together in a coordinated way that
workers, and the unions that represent them, will have the power to
make a difference and change our economic course. This conference is an
important opportunity for collaboration across geographical lines."
Kennedy is the only Canadian member of the ITF executive board.

The first half of the week will focus on road transportation issues,
Monday, November 12 and Tuesday, November 13. On Wednesday, November
14, the focus will shift to both road and rail transportation. The
following two days, Thursday, November 15 and Friday, November 16 will
focus primarily on issues surrounding rail transportation.

When:

Today Monday, November 12- Friday, November 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where:

Sheraton Centre Hotel in the Dominion Ballroom, 2nd floor

123 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is an international trade union federation of transport workers'
unions. 708 unions representing over 4.5 million transport workers in
154 countries are members of the ITF. It is one of several global
federation unions allied with the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC). The CAW is a member organization of the ITF.

The ITF's headquarters is located in London and it has offices in
Nairobi, Ouagadougou, Tokyo, New Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Amman, Moscow
and Brussels.